Moe_Lane's blog

Jim McDermott (D, WA-07) on the public option, translated into English.

2009-07-10T19:01:12Z

For some bizarre reason, Rep. Keith Ellison thought that it was a good idea to get Rep. McDermott’s opinions on the public option on the public record. Who am I to pass up such an opportunity?

Yes, he really is advocating a policy that, to quote a colleague, “prevents insurers from calculating rates or willingness to insure based on risk; all must be served, and for no higher cost than anybody else.” And no, nobody he’s close to will ever have to face the consequences of McDermott’s policies. What, do you think that these people plan to live by the rules they’d impose upon the rest of us?

Moe Lane

PS: Gresham’s Law: “Bad money drives out good.” It’s a common problem in any system where one competitor for resources has coercive powers and the others do not. Conservatives handle this by punishing abuse of the coercive power; libertarians wish the coercive power removed altogether; and liberals don’t understand why this is automatically a problem, at least when they control the competitor.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Male unemployment at 10.5%.

2009-07-10T14:56:00Z

Glenn Reynolds called this graph ’scary’:

…which it is, mostly because of the implications of what the male unemployment rate is going to be when general unemployment hits double-digits; but it’s not scary enough. So I’ve improved it a touch:

…which I think will probably help get the underlying message a bit more attention. Particularly since the measures that we use to measure unemployment now are not the ones that we’ve used in the past. So there may be even a worse situation looming, from a sociological point view; I’m not even remotely one myself, but I do know that one of the basic rules of thumb is having too many young, unemployed males in the population is bad for a society’s stability.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, now would be a really good time to read up on 19th Century European history.

Just a hint.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

“In 1972, Chicken Little wore a parka.”

2009-07-10T13:10:02Z

That’s the quote of the day, and it comes from McQ of Q&O as part of his post on 1972’s Thing That Was Going To Kill Us All: The Coming Ice Age!

As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.

Dun Dun DUN!

Moe Lane

PS: Obligatory ‘Deceiver goes off on Al Gore for the Nazi thing‘ reference. Although, I have to admit: Gore knows what his groupies like.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

New RNC Ad: “Nothing.”

2009-07-10T12:28:43Z

The RNC has decided to get in a kick or two:

…presumably on the principle that you never let a good dip in the polls go to waste. Based on the length, this looks like a web ad, which means… actually, the jury is still out on how effective web ads are. They’re certainly more cost-effective, but the dispute is on what their real reach is - and the dispute is rarely between people who don’t have a vested interest in the answer.

Full points on the big lettering, by the way. Subtle, this wasn’t. Nor was it particularly meant to be.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Yes, the President of the Valley Swim Club is a John G Duesler, Jr.

2009-07-10T20:26:49Z

So you’ve heard about the private Philly swim club that had turned away a bunch of day campers after their first (bought and paid for) visit, allegedly for being, well, minorities.

And you’ve heard the part that has gotten a bunch of people up in arms:

The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded.

“There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.

And then you perhaps heard that there’s a John G Duesler, Jr in the area who was a staunch Obama supporter:

…but when you went to look him and the Valley Swim Club up, lo! The entire site has been scrubbed and taken down! There’s now no way to check to see if this is the same person as the one who turned away The Creative Steps Day Camp! Unless, of course, they forgot to clean out the PDFs from the Google cache. And unless, of course, you happen to have the FireShot FireFox add-on, thus making a screen capture possible.

Guess what?

Looks like the same John G Duesler, Jr to me. Wonder why the scrubbing?

Moe Lane

PS: For those wondering how an Obama supporter could have problems with minority kids in his pool club, the answer’s actually depressingly simple. The skin color of a President several states away may be safely abstract. The skin color of the child currently splashing in the shallow end of your pool is rather, ah, concrete. Sad, but true.

Not that I’m alleging that this is the case, here. But that kind of break between the abstract and the concrete has been known to occur.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

[UPDATE]: American Power has more.

“Letting the Days Go By” [Special Bart Stupak (D, MI-01) Edition]

2009-07-10T02:47:58Z

This was picked in honor of Representative Stupak’s fierce crusading hearing against the evils of… bottled water*. My wife mocked this one, and she doesn’t do politics. Anyway:

Talking Heads-Once in a Lifetime

Once In A Lifetime, Talking Heads

Moe Lane

*Seriously. Although I should note that Stupak’s fellow-Democrats weren’t taking this as such, themselves, given that he was pretty much the only one there at the panel. Let me sum up the level to which your tax dollars were properly spent with this quote from the Milbank piece:

A small dog escaped from the Democratic staff room and made its way to the witness table before being apprehended.

You just know that was the high point of the proceedings.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Glenn Nye (D, VA-02) battles Glenn Nye (D, VA-02) over Cap and Trade!

2009-07-10T03:03:25Z

[UPDATE]: I’m hearing that Scott Rigell will be working with the NRCC. Another good recruitment pickup for next year.

It’s amazing how quickly Democratic Congressmen pick up the bad habits of their older colleagues. In Glenn Nye’s (VA-02) case, shameless double-talk. The NRCC is happy to point out how you can’t really be proud of getting a cap-and-trade bill passed that you cynically voted against:

It actually gets even better than the campaign commercial says: according to this Democratic site, Rep. Nye bragged about his support and opposition to the cap-and-trade bill to the same person (via Jim Geraghty). Just in case the posts go away later, here are the screen captures:

Seldom does one see this level of self-serving nonsense by a Democratic Congressman be so brilliantly expressed.

Moe Lane

PS: He has a GOP challenger, of course. Scott Rigell, a local auto dealership owner, former Marine, and long-time Republican with one heck of a buyer’s remorse at this point. Cook has the district at Rep+5, and this one’s on everybody’s list. Remove yet another seat from the Safe Democrat list: that’s been happening a lot lately, huh?

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

[UPDATE: Name typo fixed. It's late, sorry.]

The July Rasmussen Public Trust numbers.

2009-07-09T20:29:20Z

[UPDATE] Rasmussen finally put up an article.

Short version: the public trusts the GOP over the Democrats 8-for-10 at this point, and we flipped the Abortion and Social Security categories. That being said, the numbers readjusted themselves in the Democrats’ favor 5-for-10 as compared to last month’s.

July 2009				June 2009
Issue	Dem	GOP	Diff	Issue	Democrats	GOP	Diff	Shift
Health Care	46%	42%	4	Health Care	47%	37%	10	(6)
Education	41%	38%	3	Education	44%	37%	7	(4)
Social Security	37%	42%	(5)	Social Security	43%	37%	6	(11)
Abortion	39%	46%	(7)	Abortion	41%	41%	-	(7)
Economy	41%	46%	(5)	Economy	39%	45%	(6)	1
Taxes	36%	52%	(16)	Taxes	39%	44%	(5)	(11)
Iraq	41%	45%	(4)	Iraq	37%	45%	(8)	4
Nat’l Security	40%	49%	(9)	Nat’l Security	36%	51%	(15)	6
Gov’t Ethics	33%	34%	(1)	Gov’t Ethics	29%	35%	(6)	5
Immigration	34%	40%	(6)	Immigration	29%	43%	(14)	8

Rasmussen has only put these numbers out here so far, unless I’ve missed it. The shift down for the Democrats may be a trend; it may also be an inevitable result of the Republicans improving their position in eight out of ten categories from May to June. Either way, I don’t think that it’s an accident that most of the GOP increases are in areas that have been in the news for the last month; particularly taxes, and particularly health care. The Democrats may want to consider adopting a strategy of visibly doing nothing at all, on anything…

Moe Lane

PS: Also, the upcoming monthly financial reports for the various committees are going to be very interesting.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

“Done its job?”

2009-07-09T13:16:59Z

Contra The Other McCain, this is a necessary ad:

…which is not me saying that Smitty1E was wrong to criticize it; merely that his objections address his concerns of the underlying philosophy of the Republican Party. The above is a blunt political ad, and its message -“The Democrats are messing things up, and we’re not Democrats” - would be diluted by a segue into why the Democrats are messing things up. This ad isn’t here to reaffirm the Right’s opinions, in other words; it’s there to point out objective reality to the Middle, and hopefully to goad the Left into over-reacting.

That being said, we need the people who want to talk about why we need to do certain things, too. I recommend that those who wish to address what they see as flaws in the GOP’s operating philosophy do so the old-fashioned way: enter the party at the local level, gather up or join a group of like-minded individuals, and wade in swinging. As I like to say, the cavalry isn’t coming to save us. In fact, we’re the cavalry.

And we are perfectly capable of saving ourselves.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

White House Spellcheck FAIL.

2009-07-09T12:06:51Z

It’s like this administration goes out of its way to lower expectations (via Andrew Malcolm):

(They spelled the President’s name as ‘Barak Obama.’ On an official diplomatic agreement.)

This is what happens when you use spellcheck as a crutch; at a guess, somebody added “Ehud Barak” to the relevant computer’s custom dictionary a while back, thus making certain that the little red dots didn’t appear under the President’s misspelled name. And then nobody bothered to do three full re-readings of the document, using two different people. And the Chief of Staff is apparently too busy failing to live up to expectations for 2010 recruitment to live up to expectations for keeping the White House staff on its toes.

Really, it’s not that this administration’s staff is incompetent; it’s slapdash. You know the type. Wait until the last second, ignore bothersome demands on time and attention, never return phone calls, pursue private enthusiasms. When the deadline looms, leap into action, throw something together, give it a quick look-over and send it out. Then go back to favorite illicit computer diversion. You might as well get used to it, because until the President acquires a Chief of Staff willing and eager to punish embarrassingly public incompetence by ripping out livers and eating them raw you can expect these little stories to keep coming out.

On the bright side: at least the President isn’t directly responsible for the faux pas. For once.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

“Shut up, she explained.”

2009-07-09T02:46:57Z

While I agree with Ed Morrissey that seeing Senator Jim DeMint make Senator Kay Hagan admit several times that there was a double standard in the way that they killed his call for a GAO audit of the Federal Reserve (a very popular House initiative) while not applying the same rule to their own pet clauses, I also agree that it was prefaced by what some might consider somewhat dry (but necessary) exposition. So here’s a cut-down version:

Very quickly: Sen DeMint of South Carolina is trying to put in an amendment calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve into a bill, so that it can be voted on. Senator Nelson of Nebraska promptly pops up and calls for the amendment to be removed, as not being germane: Senator Hagan of North Carolina promptly approves that call. DeMint then goes on to mention specific other clauses that would also apply, in order to get Hagan to a) admit that they fall under the same rule and b) highlight the fact that they won’t be removed, too. The fact that I think that this is funny no doubt says awful things about my sense of humor, after going on eight years being involved in following politics; but it never hurts to highlight hypocrisy.

We will now pause for the inevitable “You guys were just as bad!” ‘response,’ which is of course a code phrase for I must immediately attack anything that threatens to destroy my faith in the inherent virtue of the Democratic Party. Given recent polling, I have hopes for some truly entertaining exercises in denial.

Moe Lane

PS: Senator DeMint will be at the RS Gathering, by the way.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Harry Teague’s (D, NM-02) situational opinion on global warming.

2009-07-08T23:53:48Z

It’s very odd: the farther he is from the Capitol, the less he believes in the concept. Via Glenn Thrush, an eyewitness to the current representative from New Mexico’s Second District’s discussion of the issues:

Only after the assembled citizens in the meeting room moved into the restaurant area and insisted that he answer public questions in a public forum did the congressman reluctantly stand and address the crowd. (I might add that the crowd consisted of people I recognized as both Republicans and Democrats.)

[snip]

One question that did get an answer was, since he had voted for legislation that would provide tax dollars to fight global warming, did he believe in global warming? His answer was, “I don’t know if I believe in it or not. I am not a scientist.”

Congressman Teague was also asked, if the cap-and-trade bill were put to a public vote in his district, did he believe the majority of the citizens would vote for it? He answered, “I believe they would.” This answer brought a resounding “NOOOO!” from the crowd.

I’d like to note also that the man’s been in the House of Representatives for barely half a year, and yet he’s already acquired the distressing Democratic habit of voting in favor of bills that he hasn’t bothered to read first. A sad condition, to be sure; and not one that’s apparently amenable to treatment, based on the way that it keeps breaking out among Pelosi’s and Reid’s caucuses. Fortunately, in this particular case there’s a ready enough alternative in Steve Pearce.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

And now the President is reminding Russians about Alaska.

2009-07-08T13:01:47Z

God, I miss the days of the Bush administration, when we didn’t do things like this.

Referring to the long history of Russia-U.S. trade stretching back more than two centuries, Obama told an audience of business people in Moscow:

“Along the way, you gave us a pretty good deal on Alaska. Thank you.”

Contra Reuters, this was not a “pointed quip” (as Ed Morrissey notes, it only works as one if you assume that the President wanted to insult his hosts): it was a “somebody didn’t read the briefing materials (particularly the bits about Vladimir Zhirinovsky) gaffe.” What’s next? Thanking the Chinese for their involuntary help with training up our Navy during the Boxer Rebellion? That should go over well: they’re even touchier about their history than the Russians are.

And I actively dread thinking about what the current President is going to say, the next time that he visits Japan.

Moe Lane

Crossposted at Moe Lane.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D) and two House Resolutions.

2009-07-08T11:33:24Z

I tried to stay out of the entire bizarre meltdown that was the Jackson funeral. Really, I did.

So when Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (Democrat. Oh, my, yes: Democrat): introduced a resolution in Congress honoring the - what did you call Michael Jackson, Rep. Pete King (R)?

Right: low-life, pervert, child molester, and pedophile.

…anyway, when Rep. Jackson-Lee did that, I was silent.

When Rep. Jackson-Lee referred the legislation to the House Foreign Affairs committee, I was silent.

When Rep. Jackson-Lee went to LA yesterday to highlight said resolution, I was silent*.

But now I discover, with an amazement that hovers at whimsical, that Rep. Jackson-Lee’s presence at the memorial service meant that she missed a vote on this House resolution:

H. CON. RES. 135
Directing the Architect of the Capitol to place a marker in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center which acknowledges the role that slave labor played in the construction of the United States Capitol, and for other purposes.

…which, by the way, is a perfectly reasonable use of some of the USA’s Stuff Chiseled Into Stone Tablets And Put Somewhere Public budget (and will cost us less than 300 grand anyway); so… yes. That requires comment, not to mention not a little bit of scorn. This is supremely narcissistic of you, Rep. Jackson-Lee; and while it fits admirably with the animating principles of the latter stage of Michael Jackson’s life, it’s not appropriate behavior for a sitting Congresswoman.

Please stop.

Moe Lane

*You can also see the video here. See how long it takes before you’re overwhelmed by the sheer nonsense of it all; I couldn’t really make it past her praise of Jackson’s parent’s family life**.

**Amusingly, do an Amazon.com search for Michael Jackson biography and sort for bestselling and you end up with The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution as the top hit. That’s just funny.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Murtha (D, PA-12) client indicted for taking kickbacks.

2009-07-08T01:28:17Z

(Via The American Thinker, via Instapundit) The bolded part is the part that you want your eyes to linger over.

Ex-contractor with Murtha ties charged over kickbacks

Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have charged a former executive for a defense contractor with ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) with taking nearly $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor.

Richard Ianieri, former president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., is accused of accepting the kickbacks from a subcontractor identified only as “K” in court documents filed Monday. The charges came in the form of a criminal information, an indication that Ianieri is working with prosecutors and plans to plead guilty.

As you might remember from the Rezko trial - and that saga isn’t over yet; it’s just still in its Blagojevich phase - these kind of cases take time to build up and play out; so now is the time that you’d be wanting to see the first corruption cases go down. Is Murtha involved? That’s an interesting question… and, given that this is the first election cycle since 2002 where the man has had a primary challenger, the answer to that is probably of interest to more people than myself, or even the rest of the Republican party.

As to opponents in the general: it’s been reported (and assumed) that Bill Russell’s planning on another shot at this seat; and there’s also Tim Burns. Local businessman, looks decent on the issues, not notably involved in blatant acts of federal money patronage and unashamed pork-barrel appropriations; all in all it would make for a refreshing change.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Bernie Sanders: Kinsley Gaffe, or just not paying attention?

2009-07-08T02:50:15Z

Contra Gateway Pundit (and Hot Air), I am not certain that Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) actually meant to imply that the Democrats were going to destroy private health insurers. Given that he is in fact a socialist, it may be that being one has finally killed enough brain cells to make him not notice that he answered the question so poorly.

[Update: I'm reminded that video isn't universally accessible. Transcript, also via Gateway Pundit:]

FOX News analyst: But they’re afraid. Private insurance companies are afraid that they will be put out of business. So why shouldn’t they fight it?

Sen. Sanders: They should be afraid. Let me tell you they should be afraid. I think when they deny people health care because somebody has breast cancer a few years ago, when they throw people off of health insurance because people were sick and ran up a health care bill they have a right to be exposed, a right to be afraid.

Look, it’s not my fault that intellectually speaking being a self-identified socialist in this day and age is much like being a self-identified Flat-Earther*. It just is. And it makes you do dumb things, like tell private insurance companies that the United States Senate is coming after them with a mad gleam in its eye. Given that, true or not, this is precisely the impression that current Senate leadership does not want to create… well. To use the terminology of the guy that the Senator spent the last eight years ineffectually fighting: heckuva job there, Bernie.

Moe Lane

PS: More seriously, please remember: no matter what happens with the health care plan, neither Senator Sanders, his family, nor his close associates will ever suffer from the more onerous aspects of it. Because while all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others.

*Well, except for the former’s higher historical body count.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Metal manufacturers pay the price for Joe Biden Opening His Mouth.

2009-07-07T12:31:07Z

The annoying bit is that we can’t even put the Vice President in an undisclosed location, given that he’s already gone out and disclosed it. I would write that it’s days like this that make me miss Dick Cheney, except that doing so would imply that I’ve ever stopped doing so since 01/20/2009.

Biden comments drive metal manufacturers lower

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of major metal manufacturers traded sharply lower Monday, a day after Vice President Joe Biden said the White House “misread” the economy, prompting concerns that an economic recovery could be slower than expected.

[snip]

During the second quarter, commodity prices “went through the roof,” and investors snapped up metal makers stocks on word that the economy was “less bad” than before, he said.

But, now, the market has switched its thinking amid broader concerns about the economy, he said.

See here for a link to the interview (Hot Air for the H/T). About the only thing that you can say about it is that at least the White House hasn’t sent out people to retract the economic portions yet - unlike, for example, the VP’s recent comments that could be read as the USA giving permission to Israel to bomb Iran (via Sense of Events). But the ‘pace of the ball is now going to increase,’ at least - and if you know what that actually means, I’m not sure whether to be envious of, or worried about you.

Just another Monday in this, the best of all possible worlds…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

NY Senate Watch: Paterson (D) could end this, any time?

2009-07-07T10:18:13Z

He arguably has the authority to do so. And knows it.

Groups call on Paterson to appoint Lt. Governor

Citizens Union, Common Cause and Assemb. Michael Gianaris (D- Astoria) urged Paterson to exercise the authority given him by Section 43 of the Public Officers Law.

The provision reads in part, “if a vacancy shall occur, otherwise than by expiration of term, with no provision of the law for filling the same, if the office be elective, the governor shall appoint a person to execute the duties thereof until the vacancy shall be fill by an election.”

Gianaris said the groups’ idea was presented to Paterson several weeks ago and he hasn’t yet made a decision.

It seems odd that Paterson, who is (like other Democratic governors) polling extraordinarily badly right now, doesn’t seem all that interested in ending the Senate mess in NY*, or at least getting it under some sort of control. Then again, it seems odd that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo would be arguing against the constitutionality of a solution that would arguably help not only New York, but his own party head.

Well, no. Not really. An out-of-control Senate is a wonderful thing, if you’re a Democrat trying to unseat an incumbent…

Moe Lane

*Really briefly: the Senate is 31-31. The GOP had a 32-30 majority for just long enough to put in a defector from the Democrats as Senate President. But you need a 32 member quorum to pass bills, and the Democrats adamantly dispute the truthfulness of the previous sentence. If there’s a quorum, the Senate President arguably breaks ties (that’s disputed, too) in the absence of a Lt. Governor. Hence, the trenches now stretching down the length of the chamber.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Schumer: no need for bipartisanship on health care.

2009-07-07T01:06:56Z

He’s got those sixty votes, you see. And he’s impatient. Impatient of the way that people are still getting in the way of his shepherding of a health care plan that neither him nor his will ever have to use.

Schumer: With Franken Seated No Need To Compromise On Public Option

One of the leading Senate Democrats in the health care reform battle said that the seating of Al Franken has given the party the purpose and direction it needs to ensure that a public option for insurance coverage remains in any bill.

“If you did a consensus within the Democratic Party, you would find the level-playing-field public option to be the answer,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “And now that we have 60 votes, it seems to me like we don’t have to turn it inside out for something we don’t like.”

Well, that’s certainly blunt enough; so, shall we get on with it then, Senators?

That would be Senators Bayh, Bennett, Gillibrand, Lincoln, and Specter, mind you. After all, none of you are scared of taking a firm position on an issue that’s splitting the country right down the middle, are you?

Moe Lane

PS: See also.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

It’s official: Steve Pearce (R Cand, NM-02) wants his seat back.

2009-07-06T20:21:58Z

Real quick: NM-02 went for McCain (barely) in 2008; Cook has it at R+6. It’s been rumored for some time that Pearce (who didn’t run for the seat in 2008) would be trying to get it back for the GOP, but Harry Teague’s vote on cap-and-trade was the triggering event. You can donate to his campaign here: his basic site is here, and includes his reasons for running. They’re sufficiently important that Pearce isn’t going to run for Governor after all:

Pearce had been preparing to run for governor, but said Teague’s vote forced him to rethink his priorities.

“The cap-and-trade vote [from Teague] is the thing that put my decision over the hump,” Pearce said in an interview with POLITICO. “I was absolutely stunned over his vote. When he made the cap-and-trade vote, the hostility in the district was reflected in the way we feel out here. There are 23,000 statewide jobs in the oil and gas industry – and if this bill is passed, this will kill many of those jobs.”

Pearce represented the district for three terms before mounting an unsuccessful campaign in 2008 against Democrat Tom Udall for the Senate. He said he was friendly with Teague before his election, and was befuddled by his recent voting record given his background in the oil industry.

Contra Pearce’s statement, it isn’t befuddling at all, really. Harry Teague is a Democrat, and will thus vote as his party directs. That’s what Blue Dogs do.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.